A ROADSIDE STAND

By ROBERT FROST

By:
Varenya
Rebecca
Ganavi
Mahi
Madhu
Drishti
 ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
ROBERT FROST
Robert Frost (1874-1963) is a highly acclaimed
American poet of the twentieth century. Robert
Frost wrote about characters, people and
landscapes. His poems are concerned with
human tragedies and fears, his reaction to the
complexities of life and his ultimate acceptance
of his burdens. Stopping by the Woods on a
Snowy Evening, Birches, Mending walls are a few
of his well-known poems. In the poem A
Roadside Stand, Frost presents the lives of poor
deprived people with pitiless clarity and with the
deepest sympathy and humanity.
⚫ Introduction:
In ‘A roadside stand’ the poet Robert Frost
describes the miserable condition of the
people living in the country side. The city
people who drive through country side
hardly stop at the roadside stand nor do they
care for the people who run it. If at all they
do stop, they do to criticise the place & the
people .Frost describes the lives of the poor
people with pitiless clarity & with
⚫Theme of the poem:
The theme of the poem roadside stand deals
with the struggling & vulnerable lives of
countryside people & how the city
dwellers don’t even pay any heed to their
hapless conditions.
Further, the city dwellers don’t think about the
struggles they face while selling their goods.
Robert Frost shows a sympathetic attitude
towards these impoverished masses & feels
comparison for them.
 Stanza 1
The little old house was out with a little new shed
In front at the edge of the road where the traffic sped,
A roadside stand that too pathetically pled,
It would not be fair to say for a dole of bread,
But for some of the money, the cash, whose flow supports
The flower of cities from sinking and withering faint
Vocabulary & poetic devices
⚫ out with: extended
⚫ traffic sped: vehicles moving speedily.
⚫ dole of bread: for a living
⚫ pathetically pled: A roadside shop is pleading for some
cash(personification)
⚫ flower of cities: extra cash flow that helps cities to
flourish(metaphor)
⚫ sinking and withering faint: Cash flow that supports city
business & prevents it from any business failure.
 Stanza 2
The polished traffic passed with a mind ahead,
Or if ever aside a moment, then out of sorts
At having the landscape marred with the artless paint
Of signs that with N turned wrong and S turned wrong
Offered for sale wild berries in wooden quarts,
Vocabulary & poetic devices
⚫ polished traffic: This is so called refined city going
people.(transferred epithet)
⚫ with a mind ahead: Their minds were restless with
greed for money.
⚫ out of sorts: city people feel uneasy as they think
presence of roadside shed mars the beauty of
landscape.
⚫ with N turned wrong and S turned wrong: The owner
of the stand being illiterate has erected the board with
wrong spelling with S & N inverted.
Stanza 3
Or crook-necked golden squash with silver warts,
Or beautyrest in a beautiful mountain scene,
You have the money, but if you want to be mean,
Why keep your money (this crossly) and go along.
The hurt to the scenery wouldn’t be my complaint

Vocabulary & poetic device

Crossly: angrily
 Stanza 4
So much as the trusting sorrow of what is unsaid:
Here far from the city we make our roadside stand
And ask for some city money to feel in hand
To try if it will not make our being expand,
And give us the life of the moving-pictures’ promise
That the party in power is said to be keeping from us.
Vocabulary & poetic device:
⚫ trusting sorrow: sorrow due to fake promises made by the rich
people.(metaphor)
⚫ if it will not make our being expand: extra inflow of cash would
improve the financial status of the poor villagers.
⚫ life of the moving-pictures’ promise: standard lifestyles
⚫ as shown in movies.
⚫ party in power: ruling political party.
 Stanza 5
It is in the news that all these pitiful kin
Are to be bought out and mercifully gathered in
To live in villages, next to the theatre and the store,
Where they won’t have to think for themselves anymore,
While greedy good-doers, beneficent beasts of prey

Vocabulary & poetic device

⚫ pitiful kin: here it is the village people
⚫ to be bought out and mercifully gathered in: poor people
were given assurance to live in village next to theatre &
multiplexes etc.
⚫ greedy good-doers : Apparent benefactors(Alliteration)

⚫ beasts of prey: have authorities who claim to give benefits